Mechanism for cleaning glass windshields or analogous surfaces



l a. 5. man; w: n oUGHy. i MECHANISM FOB CLEANING'GLASS WVIHSHIELDS:OR'ANA'LOGOUS SIRFACES `MPus'mum mm ma. 29. 1920.

V'G."E. AND J. w.l DOUGHTY. MECHANISM FOB CLEANING GLASS WINDSHIELDS OR ANALOGOUS SURFAGES.

- vAPPLICATION FILED MAR. 29. 1920.v

. lla-tema Nov.. 23, 1920,.

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GEORGE E. DOUGHTYAND JOHN w. DOUGHTY, or is'nooinaviv, ivEwYoRk.

givincminisivi non CLEAN-ING etnsswinnsni-ELDS on ANALoGoUs 'strana-'ons -spifficiiol f Letters I tent- 'Patented Nom-23, 1920.

Appii'c'autin aiea'iiiarci 29, 192o. serial No. 369,812.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that we, GEORGE E. DoUGH'rY and JOHN W. DOUGHTY, citizens of the United States, residing at- Brooklyn, in vthe county of Kings and State of' New York, have invented certain new and ,useful AImprovements in Mechanism Kfor Cleaning This invention i faces such as the front windows`of locomo-A tives or airplanes, or various otherv surfaces subject to weather or other conditions requiriner frequent rubbing or scraping to n b I pliedto any form of wind shield; and by maintain Athe surface substantially clean.

The general object ofthe present invention 'is to aifordamechanism of the kind referred to which will be simple and inexpensive in structure, and at the same time effective Aand convenient in operation, durable and free from liabilityto get out of order. lVhile hand power might in somecases be 'used as the motive power for driving the` mechanism, it is aparticular object hereof to afford a compact and eflicient mechanism driven by electric motor; and especially such a motor whichl is stationary in position and requires neither reversing in action nor a4v reversible clutch, yet such as'will cause the cleaner device to'traverse the surface to vbe cleaned in alternate directions, thus con- Y stantly scraping or rubbing off from thesurface rain, snow, ice, dirt or other obstructions. Further objects and'advantages of the-present invention will beelucidated 1n the following description. of one convenient I embodiment' thereof, or will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

To the attainment of the objects and advantages referred to, the presen-t invention consists in the novel mechanism andthe novel features of combination, arrangement and details herein illustrated, described or claimed. y g

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of an automobile wind shield having applied'- theretoa lcleaning mechanism constitutingv l a convenient einbodiment for the purposes of illustrating the s a novel mechanism for' cleaning glass wind shields or analogous surprinciples of the present. invention.- 'This figure is partly broken away toshow interior I fas construction. Y.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism seen in Fig. 1.

.F ig. 3 .is a leftend elevationofthe mech- -anis'm seen in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 on an enlarged scale is a left elevation vin section taken onY the line Ll--Ll of Fig. 2.

Fig., 5^ is a partial, horizontal sectional View taken centrally through the adjustable. sprocket wheel andits adjusting means.

The glass windshield 5 is shown' as held within an inclosingf-ram'e or 'rim 6. This may be of standard form, inasmuch asv my invention is adapted to be detachably`ap quent cleaning operations' areA desirable.

`The main supporting memberor frame,

which supports the parts of the present invention, is shown in-theform of a hollow case, box or housing 7, arranged transversely,

iin this oase horizontally, across near the top 'edge' of the wind shield. As seen in Figs. 2 and 3, the hollow support 7 4is provided at each end with a clamping eXtensionS, in

which engages a .'clamp screw 9, so that the mechanism of this invention can be attached 'at the opposite sides of theV wind shield, or

detached when not to be used.

' lThe Vactual cleaning devices are supported by a niovable'c'arrier shown in the form. of a slide-or'block 10. This carrierl is tted to' traverse the width of the wind shield in altern'atev directions. Instead "of having a cleaning device at4 onlythe outer or frontside of the wind shield,there may be oneat each side, and forthis purpose the sliding'. carrier 10', which is shown as constituted of' bent metal, is formed with an extension 11 passing over the top of the wind shield and 4and enable a material contact pressure to be maintained upon the' cleaners against the down at the opposite side, as more fully seenfi in Fig. 4. At one side of thewind shield,f

^ bar or stock 16, carrying a scraping or rub-..

14, each head having pivoted to it a cleanery 15, which may consist. simply of a vertical bing element 17 in the form of a rubber strip or the like. When the carrier is moved from one side to the'other, the two scrapers orA strips '17 pass across the wind shield glass in intimate contact and thoroughly clean it of dirt, moisture, snow, etc.

The carrier 10 may be slidingly mounted as follows. The hollow support 7 -1s shown as having alongitudinal slot 18, see Fig. 1Q

rier and the support, and inside the supportis a second piece of material orfiber 21. T he bolt or screw 19 forms thevconnection for these elements,'and at its inner end it is screw-threaded intothe fiber block 21, which may be considered as part of the carrier.

For causing the back and forth movements of the carrier and cleanersLwe prefer toemploy an elongated actuator which extends transversely or crosswise 1n substantial parallelism' withthe surface to .be cleaned, and adapted to be driven in a sinle direction by the motor or driving shaft. logether with s'uch actuator, a suitable means connects it with the carrier such as to cause'the carrier 'and the cleaner to travel alternately'in opposite directions during the unidirectional motion of the actuator. This principle might be carriedout in various ways. F or example, there might be a transverse shaft extending across the wind shield,

driven always in one direction by the motor,

together with connectionsfrom such shaft or actuator to the carrier serving to automatically reverse the direction of travel of the carrier at the end of each stroke, thus causing it to travel in opposite directions during the unidirectional motion of the ac tuator. l/Ve do not specifically lillustrate such embodiment of the principles hereof, as we prefer to illustrate what we consider the simpler and better fcrnrshown in the drawings and now to be described more in detail.

A simple link 28 is shown as constituting 'the lconnection from the actuator 2li to the carrier 10. lt actually extends from boss .22 on the fiber block 21 to a pin 2% on the actuator. rlhe illustrated actuatei.' is simply an endless belt, by which w 'lf any other flexible element, versely across and near to cleaned. rllfhis endless b shown as a spr. che tively within the nollew Lesage? its ends passing around two wneeis ,or sprockets 25 and 26, the former being lo'n.- gitudinally adjustable to take up slack,'and

.the latter being mounted on a shaft 27, which is the driving shaft through which the actuator belt or chain vis driven. An electric motor 28 is shown bolted vto the support 7, and its shaft is a continuation of the shaft 27 carrying the driving sprocket wheel 26. Conductors 29 extend to aswitch 30, and a source ofgcurrent 31, which may be the storage battery of the automobile.

The switch is'shown set for an open circuit,

but by reversing-'the switch the motor vis rendered active for constant forward rotation, so that, when the invention is in use, the actuator or endless chain 24 travels always in a single direction.

rll`he advantageof such an arrangement is that by attaching at any suitable point on the cha-in a member such as 24a, this vmember, although alwaystraveling in one direction with respect to the pathgof the chain, actually traverses the wind shield -in opposite directions. `It is, therefore, only necessary to provide an effective mechanical connection between the Vmember 24s1 and the carrier 10. This might consist of a simple slot formed in the lcarrier, or a'suitable eX- tension thereof, so that the pin 24 can work upwardly and downwardly it passes around the sprocket wheels, and yet always keep its engagement for producing the travcling movements of the carrier. l/Ve, however, have shown the connecting link arrangement before referred to. The link 28 serves effectively for this purpose. lt will be noticed that the link is relatively short, so that at the end of its travel one extremity may pass around the wheel or sprocket'to effectively reverse the direction of action, while the other end of the link, pivoted to the carrier, pauses for a moment until with the further advance of the chain, the link comes again into action to advance the carpresent invention. Since many matters of combination, arrangement, design and de#v tail may be variously modified without dei c ing from the principles involved, it is t intended to limit invention to such speciiee in themed is: 'l ism for with the cleaner in constant contact with travels always in one'direction 'the carrier the surface, and characterized by an endless and cleaner travel alternately in opposite actuating belt arranged with the planeof its direction-sj across' the surface to be 4ACleaned. 10 orbit adjacent and substantially parallel to In testimony whereof We .have affixed our the surface to be cleaned, and passing signatures hereto. l around guides, and one part of the belt con- GEORGE E. DOUGHTY. nected to the Carrier, so that while the belt JOHN W. DOUGrI-ITY. 

